Foster Child
by Margaux.S.18
Summary: Little Emma is meeting her new foster mom, Regina. Is everything going to work out or is Regina going to end up taking her back? - I don't own OUAT...
1. Ice Cream

Little Emma was watching TV while waiting for her new foster mom to pick her up. She sighed sadly, she had been with the previous family for five years before the mother had gotten pregnant and dropped Emma back at the foster home.

The little six-year-old had been devastated when she got back and her social worker worked hard to find her a new home quickly.

A woman arrived at the front desk. "Hi, my name is Regina Mills. I was asked to foster a little girl, Emma Swan?" The woman behind the desk nodded and called for Emma's social worker.

A young man soon arrived in the lobby. "Miss Mills?" the brunette woman nodded. He smiled and showed her to his office. "I'm grateful you could do this so quickly. Emma is a very easy child, I assure you. She just has a little bit of an abandonment issue, but that'll probably go away soon. Do you have any questions?"

Regina thought about it for a second. "Does she have any family I need to worry about?" She asked seriously.

"No, Ma'am. Emma was found on the side of the highway. The only thing we knew about her was her name "Emma" was written on a blanket." Regina nodded understandingly.

"If that's all the questions you had, I can show you where she is." Regina nodded and followed the man into the children's playroom. There she was, sitting on the floor by herself. The little blonde looked up as the social worker called her.

"Emma, this is your new foster mother, Regina Mills. Regina, this is Emma Swan," the social worker introduced them.

"Hello, Miss Mills." The child said politely. She looked rather shyly at the woman and was looking around for somewhere to hide.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Are you ready to go to your new home?" Regina's smile was making Emma more comfortable and the child relaxed. She looked up at her social worker expectantly, not sure what she needed to answer.

He grabbed the box with Emma's things, letting Emma know it was time to go. The little girl held out her hand to Regina, who gladly took it and guided her to her car.

After saying goodbye to the social worker, Regina helped Emma into the car. She fastened her seatbelt, before getting in herself.

The drive to Storybrooke was long and mostly silent, until Regina got tired of it and broke it. "So, Emma, would you like to stop at Granny's for ice cream on the way home?"

Emma's eyes lit up, making Regina smile. "I love ice cream!" the girl exclaimed excitedly.

They sat into a booth at Granny's waiting for their ice cream, when Regina noticed Emma getting uncomfortable once more. She looked around and noticed everyone staring at the little girl.

"All right," she got up, "everyone this is my foster daughter, Emma. Now that you've seen her, you can stop staring at her as if she were an alien." Everyone instantly turned around and Regina sat back down, smiling satisfied.

Soon after, the waitress arrived with their treats. This made Emma relax once more. She grabbed the spoon and took a big bite, instantly regretting it as it was too cold and to big to swallow at once.

Regina chuckled at the child's panicked face. "Emma, you should take smaller bites. You'll enjoy it more."

The girl smiled embarrassedly at her foster mother. "I'm sorry." She said, looking down at her plate, this time taking a smaller bite.

Once she'd finished eating, Emma's face was covered in ice cream. "All done!" She smiled proudly at Regina.

The brunette kneeled next to the blonde and took a napkin. "Here, you have ice cream all over your face." She smiled, helping the little girl.

As she was done, she put the napkin down. Seconds later, Emma was hugging her tightly. "You're not going to leave me, are you?" She asked, just as Regina was going to stand.

"No, my dear, I was just going to pay before taking you to your new home. Why do you think I'd leave you?" Regina instantly regretted the question, seeing Emma's sad face.

"My last foster mom took me for ice cream before dropping me off at the foster home." Regina picked up the child and took her to the counter, where she would pay for their treats.

"Well, I'm not going to do that, okay?" Emma nodded at her foster mother.

"Promise?" She asked in her childlike voice.

"I promise." Emma hugged Regina tighter and waited for her to finish. She was getting tired and eventually fell asleep in the brunette's arms.


	2. Learning To Read Time

The next day, upon waking up, Regina realized she hadn't thought about where Emma would go while she was at work. Of course, the little girl would be going to school soon, but Regina hadn't had the time to enroll her yet.

Sighing, Regina called her assistant. "Hello, dear. Could you cancel all of this week's meetings, please? I'm going to be working from home this week. If there's anything urgent you can send it to my house. Thank you, dear."

She hung up and smiled thinking about the little girl in the next room. She stood and grabbed her robe. She walked out of her room and into Emma's. The little blonde was sitting on her bed reading a book.

"Good morning, darling," Regina greeted the six-year-old. "I didn't know you could read."

Emma looked up at her brunette foster mother with a wide smile. "Good morning. I can't read, but the book has nice pictures. My previous foster mother gave it to me so I wouldn't make to much noise in the mornings."

Regina smiled sadly. "Have you been awake a long time?" She asked.

"Not very long, I think, but I can't read time either." Emma hesitated, before asking: "Will you teach me?"

Regina smiled and nodded. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to the young blonde. She pulled of her watch and handed it to Emma. "So, the small hand shows us the hour. Can you tell me what hour it is?"

Emma concentrated hard on Regina's expensive watch. "Is it 8 o'clock?" She asked and looked up at her foster mother expectantly.

"That's right! Very good! You got it right on your first try." Regina praised. "Okay, this will be more difficult. For the minutes, you need to read the 1 as 5 minutes, the 2 as 10, the 3 as 15 and so on. Try and tell me the time, now?"

Emma frowned at the watch and Regina thought she'd have to explain it differently. "8.20?" The little blonde tried.

Regina looked over Emma's shoulder at the watch and was very impressed to see the little girl was right. "Very good, Emma! Okay, now 3 is a quarter past the hour, the 6 is half past the hour and the 9 is a quarter to the hour."

The brunette grabbed the watch from Emma's hand and adjusted the time, before handing it back to the blonde. "Half past 11?" Regina nodded and changed the time again. "A quarter to 5? Regina shook her head and the child frowned. "Oh, a quarter to 6!" Regina smiled and nodded.

"You're very smart, Emma! You got it all right. You know what? Let's go by you a watch this afternoon, that way you'll get to practice more." Regina said, proud of the little girl's capacities.

"Can we have breakfast now, please?" Emma asked.

"Of course, Emma. What would you like? Pancakes? Cornflakes? Something else?"

Emma's eyes widened at Regina's suggestions. "Can we have pancakes?" She asked excitedly. "Can we have fruit with the pancakes? And apple juice?"

Regina chuckled at the child's excitement and nodded. "You're in luck; I just made homemade apple juice." Emma's eyes lit up at that statement and it filled Regina's heart with love and happiness.

Emma had only barely been in the brunette's life, but Regina already loved her with all her heart. She couldn't imagine her life without the little blonde. The whole she'd felt all those years, since Daniel's car accident was slowly being filled by the love she felt for the little girl.

**A/N: **

**Thanks to all of you who reviewed/favorite/follow this story**.

**I'm really sorry I haven't been able to post a new chapter earlier… **

**Let me know what you think and if you have ideas for the next chapter or other stories**


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